Any Other Way
by Fowlfan5
Summary: How the Doctor survives being killed at Lake Silenco... despite all the faults in the timestream it may have created.  Takes place after 'Closing Time', please read and review!


**I know Steven Mofat's version will be way more complicated, but this is my dorky version of 'The Wedding of River Song'. Thanks!**

**Discaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or anything else mentioned.**

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><p>The woman looked at her children, smiling fondly.<p>

"Well my loves, what story do you want me to tell you tonight?" She knew what they'd ask for- they always asked for the same stories. But, since the stories were so vast and plentiful, they never got dull. Her oldest daughter smiled, eager and bright-eyed. The woman smiled; she had the same eyes as her father.

"Can we hear a story about the Doctor please Mummy?" she asked. She smiled at her daughter.

"Alright." The woman stood up and took a few steps towards the book shelf, taking the familiar blue book with it's comforting engraved cover. She ran her hand over it fondly, like she always did when she read an entry from it. Opening the thoughroughly thumbed-through book, she flipped to a random page, smiling when she realized what page it was. She smiled up at her children, a mischevious glint in her eyes.

"Oh, my loves, this is an amazing story... I don't know, do you think you've been good enough to hear this?" she asked, teasing them. The three nodded eagerly.

"Yes!"

"I don't know, do you promise to brush your teeth and go straight to bed once I'm done?"

"Yes!" they all promised instantly. She pretended to consider.

"Alright." She leaned back in her rocker, smiling as she glimpesed over the pages, inhaling deeply before starting the story she loved so much. Almost as much as she loved the very first story... but not quite.

_"River didn't want the Doctor to die. If he died, that meant he couldn't be with her any more... and she knew she wouldn't be able to live with herself if he died. Especially is she was the one at fault for killing him. It was different before... she was brainwashed and didn't know any better. But now she was brainwashed and did know better... She now knew that the Doctor didn't deserve it. She didn't care who's timeline it affected, even if it killed her. As long as the Doctor lived, that was all that mattered. Fiddling with her watch, she went to her office where she had been researching the Doctor's death moments before she was kidnapped and mindwashed into killing him. Drawing in a deep breath, she realized there was only one thing left to do... kill the Eye Patch Lady. So she did the only thing she thought would be logical... she followed the pathway that she could barely remember. Although a weak lead, it was the only lead she had, and she needed to follow something. There was no time to waste. Running, she raced past the spots she hoped the Eye Patch Lady would be- the Gun shop, all of the shops she remembered going to- she even went to the Optometrist for God's sake. She searched until she decided she had to go to where she knew she'd be. She remembered vividly being there, much to her horror... She stepped into the building, only a mile away from Lake Silenco. The first thing she saw was the woman that brainwashed her, tortured her, raised her. Her black hair pulled back into a ponytail, an eyepatch covering her eye. She smiled a cold smile._

_'Well, River... I saw you only a moment ago.' Andreneline pumping, River took a step forward, a menancing noise sounding deep in her throat, similar to a growl._

_'Where is she?' she demanded. The woman with the eye patch laughed a bone chilling cackle. River frowned, her hand unvolutarily curling into a fist. _

_'She? Is that what you call her now? She leaned in, and River could smell her putrid breath rolling onto her own skin. 'She' is you.' River's face went red from frustration._

_'No. That beast... she's a monster from your creation, brainwashed. I would never kill my Doctor.' Her voice catched on the word 'my'. The evil woman smirked._

_'Oh, is someone getting sentimental? Face it love- you kill him. And you rot in jail. And there is nothing you can do that will change my mind.' Taking a gun out of her belt loop, she held it to the woman's head._

_'I'll kill you if you don't tell me where she is,' she growled. She hesitated only for a moment before regaining her composure. But a moment too long- River saw._

_'You can't kill me,' she insisted. River grabbed the woman by the ponytail, pulling her head closer to the gun._

_'Try me.' She swallowed._

_'Fine. You-' River jerked her ponytail, slightly satisfied when she heard her nemisis yelp._

_'She. Not me, she.'_

_'Fine. She is waiting- about to get into the suit.' River inhaled sharply- she didn't have any time. She had to stop herself before she got into the astronaut suit. Allowing herself to knock the woman sporting the eye patch unconscious and 'accidently' breaking her nose in the process, she raced to where she knew she would be. Running, all she could hear were her feet pounding on the hard ground, it was as if time had slowed down around her, oblivious to the birds and the other creatures around her... only caring about her soul misson. And perhaps her last. That's when she saw the door... the door she had left before she got into the astronaut suit and killed her doctor. Holding her breath, she opened the door where she saw her... the Eye Patch Lady. She had blonde curly hair, a wickedly sweet smile and eyes that when you looked deep into them scared River. River inhaled sharply, the Eye Patch Lady smiling at her._

_'Hello,' she said. River frowned, her fingers tensing around her gun._

_'You,' she hissed. She smiled patronizingly towards her._

_'Me? Don't you mean you?' River was just about ready to punch herself- that was who she was talking to afterall, a past version of herself. She didn't remember any of this happening... but then again, it hadn't happened yet. She had been trying to do anything but this, but... there was no other way. She had no clue what she was ruining- she could've been ending the universe. But since there was even a miniscule chance of saving her Doctor... she had to try. She would give up the universe for him._

_"You can't kill him," River said, voice tembling in fear. The Eye Patch Lady laughed at her, a mirror image._

_"And why exactly is that?"_

_"You're brainwashed! You don't want to kill him!"_

_"Yes I do," she retorted childishly. "Why wouldn't I?" she went onto sneer. River inhaled deeply._

_"Because you love him," she said. Eye-Patch-River hesitated slightly- not enough to make a difference but enough to show that she was aware that deep down she knew killing the Doctor wasn't right. But, unfortunately, it was too deep down. River Song took the gun out of her pocket, hands tembing, and shot it at the past version of herself- breathing deeply for what she thought the last time. She allowed a lone tear to creep down her cheek, her farewell to the world. She wasn't sad because she was dying; she was sad because she would never get to see her Doctor again. She had closed her eyes, preparing for the sensation of dying without the pain- but to her shock, it never came. She opened her eyes and saw the Doctor lying on the floor- her Doctor. How did this happen? Her heart skipped a beat and she was oblivious to everything- even the tears rolling down the mirror River's eyes._

_"Doctor!" she cried out. "What happened?" The Doctor smiled a weak smile._

_"You shot me. But don't worry. I made you." River was confused._

_"What? Why on God's earth would you do that?" He smiled._

_"So you wouldn't kill yourself."_

_"But..." her voice was trembling heavier than ever. "But I don't want to kill you!" He smiled._

_"River... I am not the Doctor you think I am. I am much older. And I am able to regenerate." A catiour spark of excitement lit within River._

_"What?" He smiled._

_"Took you long enough. I'm able to regenerate." He took her hand. "I'll be just fine."_

_"But-but that will go against time and space and you can't go back on your own time-" the Doctor rolled his eyes._

_"Done it before."_

_"The world almost ended," River pointed out._

_"Yes, but I stopped it once. I'm a very clever man, I'm sure I can do it again. Very clever. And handsome. Incredibly handsome.' Smiling, River squeezed his one hand tightly. 'Besides, it's you.' Flattered, River blushed._

_'Thank you, sweetie.'_

_'There's probably going to be some problems, so you have to handle it- alright?' She nodded._

_'Of course.'_

_'Young River too- I'm assuming you're out of brainwash, correct?' The second River nodded, her bottom lip tembling ever so slightly. _

_'God I'm clever- though I'm dying I still manage to stun you into recognition. Does it get any better? Good. Oh, and Young River- I need you to do me a favour.'_

_'Anything,' she breathed. Smiling, the Doctor handed her the sonic screwdriver._

_'Tell me that I need to put this where I first met you- he'll know what I mean, alright?' She nodded. His smiled faltered as a pang of death pain rattled through his body._

_'Well ladies, I think it's time- I'll see a future version of you both later, alright?' They both eagerly nodded and went out of the building, a flash of light going off behind them. Neither of them turned around. The Elder River began to fiddle with her watch._

_'What are you doing?' Young River asked, ripping off her eye patch._

_'I'm going to do what the Doctor said. In my time. I suggest you do the same here.'_

_'Alright.'_

_'Oh, and River?'_

_'Yes?'_

_'Don't ever try anything like that again, or I will kill you." And with a small flash, she was off."_ She smiled at her children having just finished a story.

"Was that a good story, my loves?" River Song's daughters and son nodded eagerly.

"Yes Mummy!" they exclaimed, breathless from the adventure they had just read through, eager to hear another one.

"Mommy," the youngest one asked, a little girl named after her mother- Melody. "Please read us another?" Smiling fondly, River shook her head.

"No darling, I'll finish this one then bed time, alright?" Begrudgingly, the little ones all complied. River cleared her throat before finishing her story.

_"That is how River saved the Doctor's life- and he saved hers. She had before, but this is the first time she had believed that she had done it without a selfish reason... She had done it to save the man- the crazy mad-man she loved. Although he regenerated, River counted it for some mental reson. And the Doctor had saved River Song's life many times before... Only one time had he failed to do so. And that was due to her own stubbornness. But she couldn't have been more happy that she had forced him to do so..."_ She glanced up at her children.

"Because that, sweeties, is how I got you. And I wouldn't trade you... or Daddy for the world. This world..." she said, guestering to the computer generated world around her, "or any others. Daddy put himself in this world for us you know. " She went on to read the quote she read to her children every night before bed; it had become almost a ritual.

"_When you run with the Doctor it feels like it will never end, but however hard you try you can't run forever. Everybody knows that everybody dies and nobody knows it like the Doctor. And I do think all the skies of all the world might just turn dark if he ever for one moment accepted._

_Everybody knows that everybody dies._

_But not everday. Not today._

_Some days are special. Some days are just so so blessed some days nobody dies at all. But now and then, every once in a very long while, every day in a million days where the winds stand fair and the Doctor comes to call, everybody lives."_ Closing her journal, she looked around at her children- in this house were all the people she loved. She kissed her children goodnight and got them to brush their teeth before she stood by the door.

"Sweet dreams everyone." River was about to shut off the lights when the Doctor ran down the hall.

"Wait!" he hollared. River smiled affectionately.

"Shh!" she whispered. "I just got the kids to sleep-"

"WHAT?" he yelled so his children would hear him. "MY CHILDREN DON'T WANT TO SAY GOOD NIGHT TO THEIR DAD?" River Song scowled, hearing her children get excited at the sound of their father's voice.

"Daddy!" They all yelled spuratically. With a cocky grin, the Doctor spoke to River.

"Well, it appears they're awake now..." River rolled her eyes.

"Fine, but make it fast." River heard excited squeals emit from her children as their father; her husband hugged them, swung them around and played 'Little Piggies' with their toes. He idolized them. After several moments, the Doctor came out, grinning. He noticed River's smirk.

"What?" he demanded, still smiling.

"You... You have got to be the sweetest man- no, person- I've ever met." The Doctor smiled.

"And the most handsome."

"Fine," she allowed. He pulled his wife into a hug.

"And the cleverest," he murmured, waiting for her to argue. She hugged him.

"You wish, sweetie." He smiled.

"I'm a sweet sweetie," he smirked. She stood up on her tippy-toes and kissed him.

"Yes." Glancing around at this computer generated reality, River couldn't help but feel a little left out. But in this world, there was everything she loved. Her friends, crewmates, her children, and above it all, her husband. The man that had saved her, the man that put himself in here for her. Staring into her Doctor's eyes, she squeezed her hand. An eternity with the people she loved- she wouldn't want it any other way.

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><p><strong>Hey! I hope you liked it despite it's awkwardness- my attempt at incorporting 'Silence in the Library' and 'The Wedding of Library'. Please review- thanks!<strong>

**~Fowlfan5**


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